Airports continue to harness self-service technology to enhance efficiency, streamline customer service, and reduce cost. And self-service will be one of the major themes explored across a number of sessions at the forthcoming Passenger Terminal Conference, taking place March 10-12, 2015, in Paris, France.
“Airline and customer adoption of self-service ticketing and bag tagging has redefined terminal requirements for passenger check-in,” said John Mok, president (aviation) of leading airport consultancy, Jacobs, and conference chair of the Design, Planning & Development session taking place across all three days of the conference. “We will hear from a number of speakers how airports are decentralizing check-in functions to reduce congestion and extend the service life of existing facilities.”
Airports scheduled to speak within the Design, Planning & Development session include Paris, Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt, Schipol, Houston, Seattle-Tacoma, Baltimore-Washington, Los Angeles and Vancouver, to name just a few – all of whom are either considering or have already invested heavily in self-service solutions and technology.
“Aviation is rapidly adopting passenger self-services (PSS), largely in an independent manner,” added Francis Barich, principal consultant at aviation consultancy, Barich Inc, who is presenting a paper entitled ‘Implementing integrated self-service at airports’ as part of the Passenger Processing: Bag Drop, Check-in & Self-Service session, on Tuesday March 10.
“Examples include remote check-in, baggage tagging, dynamic wayfinding, mobile/self-boarding, parking payments and border clearance,” continued Barich, who has been the lead researcher on the Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) project for PSS for the last two years. “With traffic growing and funding shrinking, airports need a coordinated and strategic approach for implementing PSS to optimize overall efficiencies. This year’s Passenger Terminal Conference provides an ideal platform to discuss some of the issues.”
A number of self-service security and self-service baggage processing case studies will be highlighted at the conference. These include a presentation from Paul Mewett, director, Innovative Travel Solutions at Vancouver Airport Authority, entitled ‘Self-service border solutions – no fee, no registration required!’ as part of the Aviation Security, Border Control & Facilitation session on Tuesday March 10.
“As one of the world’s leading airport operators, Vancouver Airport Authority (YVR) is set to launch its latest innovation in the field of automated border solutions, Global BorderXpress,” explained Mewett. “With extensive background and experience in developing self-service border solutions for multiple countries, YVR has now developed a product that can allow any government, airport or airline to reduce wait times and congestion at the border. Delegates at the conference will be able to learn how all of this can be accomplished by implementing a safe and secure border solution that doesn’t require any pre-registration or payment of fees.”
Meanwhile speakers from Brussels Airport, Belgium, Bilund Airport, Denmark and Halifax International Airport, Canada will share the valuable lessons learned so far from various self-service programs, as part of a specialist session within the Passenger Processing: Bag Drop, Check-in & Self-Service track on Tuesday March 10. “How does self-service bag drop truly affect the passenger experience? How does it influence the operational costs and terminal capacity? And most importantly – how do we continue from this point? All these questions, and more will be answered,” confirmed John Ceulers, support manager operations, Brussels Airport.
With over 300 speakers in total across a full three days of intense knowledge sharing and networking, airports and airlines interested in discovering more about self-service are well advised to attend Passenger Terminal Conference – see the full program and register for your pass here.
Image courtesy of Type22.